This literally just in (at 0134 G.M.T on 18/10/02) from www.icwales.co.uk:
TEENAGE singing star Charlotte Church's family yesterday spoke about her romance with her "bad boy" boyfriend - and said,"We're not worried about her."
Charlotte's stepfather spoke out for the first time about allegations he is going" off the rails" by spending all her time with DJ Steven Johnson.
Charlotte's mother, Maria, had apparently been trying to halt her aughter's infatuation with him but ailed. But her husband James, 38, said on the doorstep of his £700,000 ansion, "I'm not worried about my daughter, why should I be? "She is entitled to a private life and it is no-one else's business."
His comments came even though millionaire Charlotte, 16, is spending much of her spare time with Steven in his home in a tough docklands area of Cardiff. She has cast off her glamour mage - preferring scruffy clothes instead and has been seen puffing a huge roll-up cigarette outside his house. Since she returned from a trip to os Angeles two weeks ago, Charlotte has spent most of her time at Steven's terraced home in Granetown.
Neighbours of the Churches in the upmarket suburb of Coryton six miles away have hardly seen Charlotte since she returned to Britain. One said, "We used to see her coming and going but I haven't seen her for weeks now.She is growing up very quickly and perhaps she wants her own space."
Charlotte has even forgiven Steven, 18, for trying to sell his story for £100,000 while she was in the States with Sony record chief Sir Howard Stringer.
Her stepfather refused to condemn Charlotte for her involvement with Steven. "She has a private life to lead which is nothing to do with anything else," he said.
Steven and Charlotte have been using his father's home in Grangetown for late night meetings.
Friends said she had been secretly visiting Steven after telling her mother she was staying with best friend Naomi Holland.
Maria, 37, has been trying to dis-courage the relationship because she wants Charlotte to concentrate on her singing career.
A spokeswoman for Charlotte's management company said,"We arrange her engagements and do not talk about personal matters."
Charlotte, who has sung for the Pope and former US President Bill Clinton, has told friends she is tired of her angel image.
In public Charlotte likes to live up to her goody-goody image. She celebrated gaining seven grade A GCSEs by going out with friends and just having a few soft drinks.
The teenager threw everyone off the scent about her relationship with Steven after going on TV to complain she could not find a boyfriend. She said, "It's hard with guys. They either want to go out with me because I'm Charlotte Church and they're like, "You're famous" or they think, "Get away from me."
Steven's £40,000 blue BMW car with its personalised 31 SJ number plate was outside his home yesterday. The family have refused to confirm that it was bought as a gift by Charlotte who is worth more than £6m - but was getting just £50 a week pocket money from her parents.
Steven's father George answered the door said, "Steven and Charlotte are not here. I don't know where they are."
Here's yet another story concerning Charlotte smoking, this time coming from www.classical.com :
16-year-old soprano Charlotte Church was photographed smoking a cigarette in the street this week, prompting fears about damage to her voice.
The teenage star was spotted leaving her boyfriend's home with a large hand-rolled cigarette.
Her boyfriend Steven is alleged to be heavily involved in Cardiff's drugs scene, although Charlotte's stepdad told the Sun newspaper, "It looks like a cigarette to me - she wouldn't be smoking anything else out in the street."
This is the latest in a long line of revalations that suggest Charlotte may be enjoying a period of teenage rebellion. She is rumoured to be spending more time at her bad-boy lover's flat than she does at the £500,000 mansion she bought for her family.
Steven Johnson provoked rumours of a rift with the singer last month after he tried to sell his story to a newspaper for £100,000.
Charlotte, estimated to be worth £16 million, has had a stressful time this year, what with taking her GCSEs, making her first film and travelling backwards and forwards between Cardiff and LA to work.
And there's more...!
These three stories to the left came into us, one from the U.S. publication "The Daily Examiner", and the other two from "The Daily Star" (U.K.) - they must be true then?!?!
Now, where did we put that salt?!
CHARLOTTE Church last night poured her heart out to chat show host Michael Parkinson about her love for her boyfriend.
Charlotte, 16, said she had never known feelings so strong as she defended Steven Johnson, 18.
FEELINGS:
She denied buying him a £40,000 BMW with personalised number plates and told the BBC1 show, to be shown tonight, that his father had owned the car for the last eight years.
When quizzed about claims Johnson tried to sell his story, Charlotte said she did not believe them.She also refuted claims he mixed with drug users.
The interview provoked mixed reactions from fans. Amee Richardson, 22, from Fulham, said: "She obviously feels a lot for her boyfriend and stuck up for him." Another said: "She had to defend him because she couldn't say anything else."
The 16-year-old singer admits on BBC1 tonight: “My mum’s worried for me. She’s really protective.
“But there are so many parents who don’t agree with their daughter’s boyfriends.”
Charlotte says she “thinks” she loves the part-time rap DJ.
And she insists: “He’s really, really lovely. The stories that he’s a bad boy, and he does this and does that, are just not true.”
'Interviewer Michael Parkinson asks about reports
that Johnson tried to sell his story ab
out
their relationship.
Charlotte says: “I don’t believe he did. Nobody else knows him. I know him well.
“I really don’t think he did that. I know all his family and they seem really nice people.
“I’ve asked him, and he’s said, ‘I just wouldn’t do that to you, blah blah blah’.”
Charlotte — wearing a white suit and black bustier for the Parkinson show — goes on: “Maybe I’m just young and being naive, being in love and all that good stuff, but I don’t believe it.
“But maybe it will come back and bite me on my bum."
Police sources say Johnson mixes with a bad crowd involved with drugs.
Charlotte giggles when Parkinson asks if she is in love with Johnson and says: “I don’t know. I’m only little.
“I think so, I think so. It’s the strongest I’ve ever felt but then I’ve only had 16 years of experience.” Parkinson says: “You’ll get over it, but that’s a terribly patronising thing to say.”
Charlotte replies: “No, it’s OK. You’re older than me, you’re allowed to be!”
She also denies buying Johnson a £40,000 BMW. Charlotte, from Cardiff, says: “It’s a lie. I don’t get my money until I’m 21.”
Voice Of An Angel star Charlotte also tells how The Sun stopped her smoking — after she was shamed by our picture of her with a cigarette.
She says: “I got a lot of hassle. I stopped straight away because my life was in danger — from my family that is!”
She adds: “I was trying it because that’s what 16-year- olds do. It’s hard, it’s confusing being a teenager.”
Charlotte says she is close to mum Maria, 37, and denies she sacked her as manager, saying her role has simply been down-graded, as the family wished.
And asked if she is worth £15million, Charlotte laughs: “Oh no, that’s just paper money! It’s all in a trust fund.”
She also says she gave Tony Blair an earful about teenagers paying tax — but said Bill Clinton was “really cool and easy to get along with.”
CHARLOTTE Church's lawyers last night threatened to take action over claims in a magazine that the singer has recorded an underground dance track with her "bit of rough" boyfriend.
An article in Heat magazine claims Charlotte, 16, has worked on a "rude" track called Stick It In Cider.
The report quotes her boyfriend Steven Johnson, 17, who claimed Charlotte had secretly worked with his Newport-based band Goldie Lookin' Chain.
But last night a legal spokesman for Charlotte denied the story.
Johnson was quoted in Heat as saying: "You can expect a GLC track featuring Charlotte some time in the New Year.
"It's a bit rude. It's called Stick It In Cider."
Heat's article also said Johnson described the Cardiff soprano as "all woman". It claimed Charlotte was working with Johnson's band to "make her image a bit more street".
But a spokesman for the singer said: "It looks like someone has been on the phone impersonating Steven Johnson. Both Charlotte and her boyfriend are absolutely furious."
Polly Hudson, news editor with Heat, said yesterday she was aware of Charlotte's complaint - but declined to comment.
Johnson recently tried to sell intimate details of his relationship with Charlotte to newspapers for £50,000.
SINGING star Charlotte Church has finally confessed that she loves the boy-friend she calls her "bit of rough".
And Charlotte, 16, is ready to defy her mum by remaining loyal to Stephen Johnson.
Asked if she loves 18-year-old Johnson, the star replies: "I think so, I think so."
She adds: "It's the strongest I've ever felt but I've only had 16 years of experience."
Charlotte's revelations come during an interview with TV chat show host Michael Parkinson, to be broadcast tonight.
Asked if her mum Maria approves of Johnson, she says: "No, not really. But there are so many parents who don't agree with their daughter's boyfriends.
"My mum's worried for me - she's just really protective."
The millionaire singer also claimed the press lured Johnson into offering to sell intimate secrets of their relationship to newspapers for £50,000.
Charlotte tells Parky how she was at a glitzy awards bash in Los Angeles when the story emerged.
She adds: "It was really distressful - I was freaking out, but I really don't think he did that.
"I've asked him, and he's said, 'I just wouldn't do that to you'."
But she adds: "Maybe I'm just young, naive and in love. But maybe it will come back and bite me on the bum."
She also denies splashing out £40,000 on a flash sports car for Johnson from her earnings, which are held in trust.
She says: "My mum doesn't approve of this boy, so she's going to let me buy a £40,000 BMW? I don't think so. It's his father's car and it's been outside his house for eight years."
Charlotte is staying with Johnson, a part-time DJ, at his Cardiff home. There are even rumours they are trying to buy a plush flat together.
Whatever her living arrangements, the star insists she finished with cigarettes after being snapped having a sly puff.
She tells Parky: "I don't smoke and as soon as my mother found out, she went mad. My whole family just went, 'What are you doing, you're a singer'.
"I stopped straight away because I knew my life was in danger - from my family that is."
The teenager also denied sacking her manager mother. She said: "Mum never was my manager but is still involved in my career, just at a lesser level.
"That's what my family decided - they wanted to give me more freedom."
The couple are looking for a property to rent in the heart of Cardiff close to where Steve lives with his father.
Charlotte, 16, who is worth £15 million, and 18-year-old Steve hope to move in before Christmas.
The news comes just a week after Charlotte sacked her mother Maria as her manager. Mrs Church had tried to stop Charlotte from seeing Steve. The singer retaliated by moving out of the family home and seeing more of him.
Charlotte, who built her success on her demure Voice Of An Angel after appearing on a TV talent show when she was 11, has jokingly called Steve "my bit of rough".
Friends say she has been virtually living with Steve anyway but the couple have now decided to get a place of their own.
They favour an exclusive waterfront flat in a block called Land Mark Place.
A two-bedroom apartment with a view over the city as well as the water costs £800 a month.
SINGER Charlotte Church's step-father has broken the family's silence to speak about their "strong" relationship with the teen star.
James Church spoke after rows between Charlotte and her mother Maria over her new boyfriend.
But James, 38, said the couple were still very close to Charlotte, 16, despite a rift over her romance with part-time DJ Steven Johnson.
"Charlotte appreciates everything that has been done for her by Maria and their relationship is as strong as ever despite the rumours.
"Charlotte loves her mother very much and has made it clear how much she thinks of her," he said.
Charlotte appeared on the Parkinson TV chat show where she admitted that her mother doesn't approve of her romance with Johnson, 18.
But she said her mother was being "protective" of her.
James said, "Maria is a wonderful wife and mother and I'm angry that there seems to be a campaign to make her look bad.
"She has done a superb job in bringing up Charlotte whose success is a real credit to her.
"I don't think there is any other mother who could have done as much for her daughter as Maria.
"I just don't know why people are trying to portray Maria as a bad mother - that is simply not true and the opposite is the case."
He dismissed rumours of a rift between him and his wife over Charlotte as "nonsense".
Speaking at the family's luxury home in Coryton, Cardiff, James said, "We are in agreement about the way we treat Charlotte - there have been no arguments between Maria and I about that."
The couple - who control Charlotte's £15m fortune as co-directors of her company Charlotte Church Ltd - have just returned from a luxury holiday in the Caribbean island of St Lucia.
Charlotte is to tour America next month to promote her greatest hits album - but will leave James and Maria at the family's plush £700,000 house in Cardiff's exclusive Coryton suburb.
Her step-father refused to talk about Charlotte's relationship with Johnson.
He said, "I don't want to say anything about that. "
Teen soprano Carlotte Church is back in the news this week after discussing her private life on BBC chat show Parkinson.
Speaking on the show, broadcast on Saturday night, the 16-year-old vocalist openly discussed a number of tabloid allegations about her relationship with "bad boy" boyfriend Steven Johnson.
She denied a claim that Johnson had tried to sell the story of their relationship to the News of the World for £100,000, saying, "I've asked him and he's said, 'I just wouldn't do that to you.' Maybe I'm just young, naive and in love."
The News of the World yesterday reaffirmed its claim that Johnson and a group of friends had met with reporters in a Cardiff Hotel, and drunk champagne at the expense of the newspaper.
During the interview, Ms. Church also denied buying Johnson a £40,000 BMW, claiming it had belonged to his father for years.
Although she was prepared to publicly discuss her relationship with the student and part-time DJ, she was less vocal on the subject of her mother.
It was reported warlier this month that she had fired her mother as manager and demanded an allowance from record label Sony. Her 37-year-old mother Maria was said to be furious at the decision. Church, who is estimated to be worth £16 million, cannot get her hands on her earnings until her 21st birthday.
A compilation album, Prelude: The Best of Charlotte Church, is released in the UK tomorrow.
And the 16-year-old singer revealed being caught smoking made her family fume.
Church, who has sold millions of albums around the world with her angelic voice, told BBC1's Parkinson she was now thinking of heading off to university.
The young singer has been dating Steve Johnson for months but there had been fears he was a wayward influence when she was spotted smoking.
"The stories that he's a bad boy, and he does this and he does that are just not true," she said.
"He's really, really lovely and we get on really well."
Asked by presenter Michael Parkinson if she was in love, Church giggled: "I don't know. I'm only little. I think so, I think so.
"It's the strongest I've ever felt but then I've only had 16 years of experience."
Church said she did not believe suggestions that he tried to sell his story about their relationship.
Teenage superstar Charlotte Church has told for the first time how she is "in love" with her "bad lad" boyfriend.
And the 16-year-old singer revealed that being caught smoking made her family fume.
Church, who has sold millions of albums around the world with her angelic voice, told BBC1's Parkinson she was now thinking of heading off to university.
The young singer has been dating Steve Johnson for months but there had been fears he was a wayward influence when she was seen smoking.
"The stories that he's a bad boy, and he does this and he does that are just not true," she said.
"He's really, really lovely and we get on really well."
Asked by presenter Michael Parkinson if she was in love, Church giggled: "I don't know. I'm only little. I think so, I think so.
"It's the strongest I've ever felt but then I've only had 16 years of experience."
Church said she did not believe suggestions that he tried to sell his story about their relationship.
"I was in LA and it was really distressful for me at the time," she said.
"I was freaking out, but I really don't think he did that.
"I know all his family and they seem like really nice people. I've asked him, and he's said 'I just wouldn't do that to you, blah blah blah.'
"Maybe I'm just young, and being naive, being in love and all that good stuff - I don't believe it. But maybe it will come back and bite me on my bum."
After photographs were taken of her with a cigarette, Church said she "got a lot of hassle for it".
"I don't smoke and as soon as my mother found out, she went mad," she said.
"My whole family just went, 'What are you doing? You're a singer.'
"So I stopped straight away because I knew my life was in danger - from my family that is.
"I was trying it because that's what 16-year-olds do. At least I'm not doing the whole showbiz star thing and all that kind of stuff. It's confusing being a teenager."
Church passed her GCSEs this summer with three A star grades - including music - and four As.
She said she wanted to go into higher education but was unsure whether she would study in Britain or the US.
"I like America, but I love Britain because it's home and I'm not sure if I could move from here. "I am seriously considering going to university to study clinical psychology or philosophy," she added.
PA
Charlotte Church broke down in tears and refused to fly off on her US tour yesterday amid amazing scenes at Gatwick.
Sobbing Charlotte said: “It will be four weeks of hell — I don’t need it.”
The troubled singer broke down in the airport departure lounge and had her bags removed from her flight minutes before take-off.
Her managers later said she was too ill with flu to travel, and would fly out later for her 15-date tour.
But a witness at Gatwick airport said Charlotte, 16, appeared distraught.
She was heard weeping into her mobile and saying: “It will be four weeks of hell — I don’t need it, I don’t need the money.”
She asked an auburn-haired woman thought to be a manager: “What are we doing it for?”
The woman replied: “It’s work, we have to do it.”
The witness said: “Charlotte never stopped crying into her mobile phone. She looked like she had been crying all night.
“Her manager checked her in to business class and they went through to the departure lounge, where she really lost it. The manager tried to comfort her, but Charlotte was inconsolable.”
Charlotte had been due to fly to Cincinnati ready to start a four-week tour with Julie Andrews on December 3. But her manager told Delta airlines staff to take them off the flight 45 minutes before departure.
A spokesman for Charlotte’s Los Angeles agent said the star had been suffering from flu and an ear infection.
He said Charlotte had pulled out of a Christmas lights ceremony in Atlanta tonight, but added:
“She will now be flying out in a few days with her mother, who will be looking after her until her tour starts. Charlotte is at her family home recuperating.”
The singer — who has just released her fifth album Prelude — appeared in fine health the previous night when she recorded a TV interview for Today with Des and Mel.
During the ITV1 show, screened yesterday, Charlotte told host Des O’Connor: “I’m really happy.”
The teenager’s airport drama comes just days after she told friends she had patched up her row with mum Maria, 37.
They had fallen out over Charlotte’s boyfriend Steven Johnson and pictures in The Sun showing her smoking.
They also clashed after Charlotte revealed she wanted to take Johnson on tour because she could not bear to be without him.
Charlotte, from Cardiff, told pals: “All girls go through rough patches with their mums and I think I’ve got mine out of my system now.”
Charlotte vowed on TV to kick her cigarette habit, but insisted she would stay with Johnson, 18, who she calls her “bit of rough”.
Many of his friends are said to be drug-users and criminals.
SINGER Charlotte Church fled an airport in tears yesterday, saying a planned US tour would be "four weeks of hell".
The Voice of an Angel star was due to turn on the Christmas lights in Atlanta, Georgia. But she abandoned the trip after being seen sobbing in the VIP lounge at Gatwick.
HELL: An onlooker said she screamed at aides "I can't do it. It will be four weeks of hell - I don't need it. I don't need the money." Charlotte, 16, then turned to a woman aide encouraging her to get on the plane and said: "What are we doing it for? The woman replied: "It's work. We have to do it."
The onlooker said: "She was inconsolable. She looked like she had been crying all night."
Charlotte returned home to Cardiff. Her management said she had flu.
She has sacked her mother Maria, 37, as her manager. They are said to have clashed over her "rough" boyfriend Steven Johnson, 18.
Teenage singer Charlotte Church broke down in tears and refused to fly to America on tour amid astonishing scenes at Gatwick.
A witness told The Sun newspaper: "She was inconsolable and never stopped crying from the moment she entered the airport.
Sobbing, the 16-year-old said: "It will be four weeks of hell and I don't need it."
Charlotte had her bags removed from the flight and managers later announced that she was too ill with flu to travel.
They insisted that the singer would fly out to the US soon and the tour would go ahead.
Just a few days earlier she had dismissed rumours of family troubles saying : "I'm really happy."
The witness said: "Charlotte never stopped crying into her mobile phone. She looked like she'd been crying all night."
The singer, who has just released her new album Prelude, had been due to fly to Cincinnati ready for the four-week tour with Julie Andrews.
Last Updated: 09:17 UK, Thursday November 28, 2002
Teenage singer Charlotte Church did not fly to America to begin a 15-date tour because she is suffering from flu and an ear infection, her management said today.
Charlotte, 16, was due to fly out of Britain yesterday ahead of her first performance in Cincinnati on Tuesday (Dec 3) to turn on the Christmas lights in Atlanta.
But that has been cancelled and she is now due to fly out in a few days time with her mother, Maria.
A statement from her Los Angeles management, azoffmusic, said: “Charlotte over the past few days, has been suffering with an awful flu/ear infection.
“The reason Charlotte did not fly out to the US, was that she was feeling so ill, and felt that she wasn’t well enough to make that long transatlantic flight to America, without her mother beside her.
“Charlotte was flying out early, to turn on the Christmas lights in Atlanta, which has been cancelled, and will now be flying out in a few days time with her mother – who is going to be looking after her until Charlotte’s tour starts on December 3.
“Charlotte is at her parents’ home recuperating.”
The trip had originally been planned to be Charlotte’s first without her mother.
Mrs Church is said not to approve of Charlotte’s boyfriend, Steven Johnson, but in a statement earlier this month Charlotte said this was not the reason why her mother was not coming on the American tour.
She said that while her mother still remained “very involved” in her career the involvement had reached a different level because of her growing independence.
The statement added: “Now that I have completed my studies, everyone is in agreement that it is the appropriate time for me to embark on my US tour with my management and tour staff.”
Charlotte’s north American tour will be with Sound of Music stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.
It is in conjunction with the release of her album, Prelude – The Best of Charlotte Church, and is due to take in 15 different performances, ending in Florida on December 21.
Also, I.T.V. have this Web-based report at http://www.itv.com/news/Entertainment503653.html and somewhat surprisingly, they have this Video Report to, which is basically and large hot air, which is why we have placed it here in "The Daily Dustbin". You will need to Copy and Paste this Address into a Real Audio Player to access it, for the moment it is not available as a direct download from this Site. rtsp://a288.r.akareal.net/ondemand/7/288/3619/e698288f55d4b1/www.itv.com/news/video/en_28_charlotte.rm
To download Real Player, please visit http://www.realplayer.com and we continue....
THE callous boyfriend of teenage singer Charlotte Church broke her heart on the eve of her US tour.
Charlotte, 16, fled Gatwick airport in tears after DJ Steven Johnson warned he might not stay faithful to her while she was away.
The love-struck star refused to board her flight to America, fearing Johnson would not be waiting when she returned from her four-week tour.
Charlotte raced back to Cardiff for a heart-to-heart with 18-year-old Johnson.
The singer made no comment as she left Johnson’s home in a rundown area of Cardiff around 10.15am yesterday.
She was wearing scruffy jeans and had a dark furry parka coat pulled over her head as she got into a cab.
But she told friends: “Everything’s fine now. We’ve had a talk and I’m happy again. There’s nothing to worry about.”
Later, she and mum Maria, 37, also appeared to have put their differences behind them.
Happy again ... Charlotte Church leaves boyfriend's home
They shared a hug and a laugh as they were pictured together for the first time in months.
The star, who has a £16million fortune, has rowed with her mother over her eight-month romance with Johnson.
But an onlooker in Cardiff said: “They seemed really happy to be together. There was lots of cuddling and hugging.”
Charlotte’s agents blamed illness for her last-minute airport U-turn on Wednesday.
They said she had a dose of flu and a mysterious “ear infection”.
But Charlotte didn’t mention feeling unwell when she appeared on a TV chat show on the eve of the airport drama.
And a close pal said: “There’s nothing wrong with her health. She was upset because Steven would not promise he’d be there for her when she comes home.
“He fancies himself as a ladies’ man and Charlotte thinks a lot more of him than he does of her.
“A lot of people think he’s just using her, but he can do nothing wrong as far as she’s concerned.
“She’d drop everything for him if he told her. I think he just enjoys the power he’s got over her. She just wanted some reassurance from him.
Hugs ... Charlotte with DJ Steven Johnson
“She dashed back to him and now they seem to have smoothed everything over.”
Johnson, a part-time rap DJ, refused to comment yesterday.
Charlotte was due to turn on the Christmas lights in Atlanta, Georgia, but that was cancelled when she refused to fly out to America.
She will now jet off to the US this weekend with Maria to start a tour with Sound of Music stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.
Her British manager and lawyer Mark Melton said: “Her tour will go on as soon as she is well enough. She’s not needed until the weekend when we fly out to the States.”
Charlotte had planned to tour without her parents and invite Johnson out instead.
But there is little chance of him joining her with Maria around.
He mixes with criminals and drug users, but Charlotte refuses to listen to warnings over what her family see as an infatuation — even after he tried to sell his account of their sex life for £100,000.
The singer recently said in a TV interview: “He’s lovely. We get on really well.”
CHARLOTTE Church cancelled an appearance in the US last night after refusing to board a flight and begin a new 15-date tour.
Reports that the teenager broke down in Gatwick Airport have cast doubt over the tour.
A witness claims to have heard Charlotte sobbing into a mobile phone: "It will be four weeks of hell - I don't need it."
Charlotte was due to start the four-week tour with Julie Andrews next Wednesday, but has pulled out of a Christmas lights switch-on in Atlanta tonight. A spokesman for her management in Los Angeles said that the star is suffering from flu and an ear infection and will be leaving the UK "in a few days".
But the 16-year-old appeared in good health in a TV interview yesterday, and told host Des O'Connor that she was "really happy". Just days ago the singer said she had made up with mother Maria, 37, after a row over boyfriend Steven Johnson.
TEENAGE star Charlotte Church yesterday admitted she might dump her "bit of rough" boyfriend - but only if her mother suddenly liked him.
Charlotte was speaking after a series of rows with her mum Maria over her romance with part-time DJ Steven Johnson.
Charlotte, 16, defended Steven, 18, as being "really sweet" - but admitted that part of his attraction is that her parents don't approve.
When asked if she what would have happened if her parents liked him she laughed and said, "I would probably have dumped him and gone off with someone else.
"You can't help what your parents say.
"But he's really sweet. He's really, really lovely and all my friends like him. We get on really well."
Charlotte was speaking on ITV's Today with Des and Mel when she defended her romance with Steven.
"My parents have always tried to give me as much freedom as possible but it's difficult for them because there's more dangers.
"It makes them more protective."
CHARLOTTE CHURCH put on a united front with her mother last night and rubbished rumours of a rift.
The teenage singing sensation happily posed for photographers hugging her mother Maria in Cardiff after a week of tabloid revelations about her private life.
On Wednesday Charlotte, 16, refused to board a plane bound for America ahead of her first performance in Cincinnati next Tuesday.
But last night she insisted to The Western Mail that her decision to stay in the UK wasn't due to any bust-up with her DJ boyfriend, Steven Johnson - or her mother.
"I'm glad to be back home with my mum to look after me," she said. "I'm just not feeling well.
"The rumours that are circulating about a rift between me and my mum are just rubbish."
Insiders said Charlotte had an ear infection and the thought of boarding a plane without her mother was just too much.
"She's just not feeling very well and wanted to be at home with her mum," said a source.
"She saw a doctor who told her not to fly with an ear infection. He said she should be better by the weekend and she is flying off with her mum then."
A statement from her Los Angeles management, Azoffmusic, said, "Charlotte over the past few days has been suffering with an awful flu/ear infection.
"The reason Charlotte did not fly out to the US was that she was feeling so ill and felt that she wasn't well enough to make that long transatlantic flight to America without her mother beside her.
"Charlotte was flying out early, to turn on the Christmas lights in Atlanta, which has been cancelled, and will now be flying out in a few days time with her mother - who is going to be looking after her until Charlotte's tour starts on December 3.
`She may be famous but in every other way she is a typical teenager and needs to go through adolescent crises'
"Charlotte is at her parents' home recuperating."
Charlotte is touring with The Sound of Music stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The trip had originally been planned to be her first without her mother.
Mrs Church will now accompany her daughter on the 15-date tour which ends in Florida on December 21.
The new united front comes as a child psychologist warned that 16-year-old Charlotte is at risk of becoming emotionally damaged if she is not left alone to grow and develop like other typical teenagers.
Dr Justine Howard, a developmental psychologist at the University of Glam-organ, said emotional upheavals were considered a normal part of growing up.
"She must be left alone to develop in a normal way," said Dr Howard.
"She may be famous but in every other way she is a typical teenager and needs the opportunity to go through normal adolescent crises.
"There is research to suggest that perhaps if she does not go through emotional turmoil and situations that require her to find out about herself it could be detrimental to her future.
"It's important that as she grows up she learns about her identity and who she is and when she is not working the media should allow her to grow up out of the spot-light."
REUNITED: Charlotte and her mother Maria in Cardiff yesterday
THEY say a picture's worth a thousands words - and the ones showing Charlotte Church reunited with her mother yesterday probably reveal far more than either of them intended.
Amid reports of a bitter rift, the troubled 16-year-old singer and 37-year-old Maria posed for these photographs inside a Cardiff hotel, clutching each other tightly in a bid to send out a strong message of family unity. But if they hoped to silence claims that they have fallen out and that Charlotte is near to breaking point, they have sent the rumour mill grinding even faster.
The bizarre publicity stunt came a day after Charlotte was seen sobbing in the VIP lounge at Gatwick Airport, refusing to get on a plane to Atlanta and saying a planned US tour would be "four weeks of hell".
Yesterday, the Voice Of An Angel looked remarkably well considering her management's claims that she delayed her trip because of flu.
The mystery deepened when friends of Charlotte's boyfriend, 18-year-old DJ rapper Steven Johnson, suggested she was upset at the prospect of spending four weeks apart from him while she tours America with Sound of Music star Julie Andrews.
"The girl's obsessed with him and just didn't want to be away for all that time,' said one.
"She's fed up with being a mummy's girl and poncing round those boring concerts. She wants to have some fun with us."
Earlier yesterday Charlotte was seen dressed in scruffy jeans and a dark furry coat, looking tense and pale as she climbed into a cab outside his house.
Later, her red-rimmed eyes were disguised with pink eyeshadow as she joined her heavily-made up mother Maria, who she recently sacked as her manager, for their photoshoot.
The pair were rumoured to have clashed over Charlotte's 18-month relationship with Johnson.
Maria is said to believe that he is "rough" and not a good influence on her daughter.
But, after yesterday's apparent reconciliation, Charlotte will now fly out to the States tomorrow - with her mum by her side.
Just what message the two of them were hoping to send out yesterday is unclear. But the faraway look in Charlotte's eyes suggests that the trouble afflicting her golden career is not over just yet.
Teenage singer Charlotte Church broke down in tears and refused to fly to America on tour amid astonishing scenes at Gatwick.
A witness told The Sun newspaper: "She was inconsolable and never stopped crying from the moment she entered the airport.
Sobbing, the 16-year-old said: "It will be four weeks of hell and I don't need it."
Charlotte had her bags removed from the flight and managers later announced that she was too ill with flu to travel.
They insisted that the singer would fly out to the US soon and the tour would go ahead.
Just a few days earlier she had dismissed rumours of family troubles saying : "I'm really happy."
The witness said: "Charlotte never stopped crying into her mobile phone. She looked like she'd been crying all night."
The singer, who has just released her new album Prelude, had been due to fly to Cincinnati ready for the four-week tour with Julie Andrews.
Last Updated: 09:17 UK, Thursday November 28, 2002
Charlotte Church is flying out to America tomorrow to kick of a 15-date tour, her management say.
The 16-year-old singer from Cardiff was due to fly out to Britain earlier this week, ahead of her first performance in Cincinnati on Tuesday.
But she did not board the flight - and her management said she was suffering from flu and an ear infection. A spokeswoman for Charlotte said the singer is now feeling "fine" and will be flying out to embark on her tour tomorrow. A statement earlier this week from Charlotte's Los Angeles management, azoffmusic, said: "Charlotte over the past few days, has been suffering with an awful flu/ear infection.
"The reason Charlotte did not fly out to the US, was that she was feeling so ill, and felt that she wasn't well enough to make that long transatlantic flight to America, without her mother beside her.
"Charlotte was flying out early, to turn on the Christmas lights in Atlanta, which has been cancelled, and will now be flying out in a few days time with her mother - who is going to be looking after her until Charlotte's tour starts on December 3."
Charlotte has spent much of this week at her parents' home recuperating.
Charlotte's mother Maria Church is said not to approve of Charlotte's boyfriend, Steven Johnson, but in a statement earlier this month Charlotte said her mother still remained "very involved" in her career.
Charlotte's north American tour will be with Sound of Music stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. It is in conjunction with the release of her album, Prelude - The Best of Charlotte Church, and is due to take in 15 different performances, ending in Florida on December 21.
Story filed: 17:56 Friday 29th November 2002
Teenage singer Charlotte Church refused to fly to America for the start of her US tour this week, fueling rumours that the "Voice of and Angel" may be considering early retirement.
The singer is reported to have broken down in the VIP lounge at Gatwick Airport on Wednesday night. She refused to board a flight to Atlanta, where she was due yesterday to turn on the city's Christmas lights.
She was seen sobbing into her mobile phone, saying, "It will be four weeks of hell - I don't need it, I don't need the money."
One onlooker described her as "inconsolable", saying that she looked like she had been crying all night.
Charlotte, 16, was overheard asking aides, "What are we doing it for?", only to be told, "It's work. We have to do it."
A spokeman for the singer told one English newspaper that Charlotte's departure from England had been delayed because she was suffering from flu and an ear infection, saying, "She will now be flying out in a few days with her mother, who will be looking after her until the tour starts. Charlotte is at her family home recuperating."
She is still expected be in America in time for the start of her four week tour with Julie Andrews on December 3.
Charlotte has now patched up a row with her mother that culminated in the singer telling record label Sony that she no longer wanted her mother involved in business decisions.
This latest report of unrest within the Church camp has fueled rumours of retirement within the industry. One record company insider said yesterday, "I just don't think she wants to go on with it. She's got enough money - she just wants to retire and have a normal life."
Charlotte's fifth album, Prelude, was released last week.
Here's the latest: Charlotte Church's last minute delay for her US tour is all down to her boyfriend - the man her mom warned her about.
Badboy DJ Steven Johnson has been rumored to have had contact with national newspapers in an attempt to sell stories of their relationship for a $150,000 fee.
Charlotte has never believed the speculation and always defended her love against the accusations, but, according to British newspaper The Daily Mail, the teenage soprano has finally been given proof of his indiscretions, sending the relationship into turmoil and leaving her US tour in tatters.
The 16-year-old fled London's Gatwick airport less than an hour before she was due to depart for the 15-date-tour.
A source says, "Charlotte is in a complete state. She has been talking about her relationship all over the place on television but today she finally found out just how much he has betrayed her.
"She was presented with firm proof that Steven was not all that he seemed and that he had tried to sell stories about her.
"She is devastated. The whole relationship with Steven has caused a huge estrangement with her mother and now she is going to have to try hard to mend that relationship.
"She does not know what she is going to do but unless Steven can come up with some pretty watertight excuses - and quickly - their relationship is over."
Charlotte Church was last night facing the biggest crisis of her short career after refusing to board a plane for the start of an American tour.
Her management team fear the 16-year-old may face multimillion pound legal action if she cancels her sell-out concerts in the U.S. following an argument with her boyfriend Steven Johnson.
The singer, who is worth £15million, was due to fly to Atlanta on Wednesday to switch on the city's Christmas lights ahead of her 15- date tour, which is due to start next week in Ohio.
However, after a series of telephone rows with Johnson and her mother Maria she threw a tantrum and refused to board the plane at Gatwick.
Her publicity team tried last night to smooth over rumours of a family rift with a posed picture of mother and daughter. Taken yesterday, it was the first time they had been pictured together for months.
The resulting portrait, above, however, hints that their troubles may be far from over.
According to friends, the airport drama began after Miss Church confronted Johnson over rumours that he had been trying to sell stories about her to newspapers.....about time she opens her eyes about this tidbit.....
She accepted Johnson's denials then demanded he be allowed to accompany her across the Atlantic. 'Charlotte refuses to believe Steven would sell stories on her,' explained one friend.
'She was very upset and asked him about it again because there had been so much press coverage about it at the weekend.
'He said it was all lies and she believed him, but then she had a big row with her mum because she wanted Steven to come with her to America.
'Her mum and her managers told her he couldn't and that's when the tantrum started and she wouldn't get on the plane.'
Her aides claimed Miss Church had been suffering from flu and an ear infection.
However yesterday she was seen leaving Johnson's home shortly before 10.30am.
In scruffy jeans and dark hooded coat, she looked tense as she walked out of his house and jumped into a taxi.
Yesterday her British manager and lawyer Mark Melton insisted the young singer was ill and being cared for by her parents.
When told she had been pictured out with her boyfriend, he added: 'Her private life is her private life. She was certainly with her parents yesterday. I've been told they are looking after her.'
Mr Melton insisted Miss Church would be in the U.S. by Monday for the concerts, which will also feature-Sound of Music stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. He said her mother, who was initially staying at home, would now be joining her on tour.
He said: 'Her tour will go on as soon as she is well enough.
'She's not needed until the weekend when we fly out to the States. Her mother will be going with her to look after her but not her father this time.' Back at the family's £700,000 home Miss Church's stepfather James was seen taking clothes from the house and putting them in the back of a friend's car.
Asked what was happening to the tour he refused to comment, smiling as he left the property.
Miss Church recently declared on TV that she thinks she is in love with Johnson.
'He's really lovely and we get on really well,' she told Michael Parkinson. Her family are worried about her 'infatuation' with the boy trying to make a name as a rap DJ. He is known to mix with dubious characters in the docklands area of Cardiff.
Miss Church's insistence on continuing her relationship with him has been the source of family tension and arguments.
At one point, she appeared to have moved in with Johnson and his father George. Yesterday a family member at their home said: 'We've got nothing to say.'
©2002 Associated New Media Limited
Young classical-lite singer Charlotte Church broke down in tears and refused to board a flight from London to Cincinnati Wednesday to begin a U.S. tour with Julie Andrews.
"It will be four weeks of hell -- I don't need it, I don't need the money," the 16-year-old sobbed into her cell phone, reports the Sun of London. Her managers later said she had the flu and pledged that she would indeed fly to the U.S. to begin the tour on Dec. 3 as scheduled.
-- Compiled by Barbara E. Martinez © 2002
The Washington Post Company
Editor's Note:
It is interesting that only one media article referred to Charlotte's illness as a publicity stunt - how unkind?
Although, she seems to have recovered from the 'flu rather quickly, which normally lasts about a week, during which time you have no energy and generally stay in bed.
And yet Charlotte managed to go to a hotel in Cardiff for a photoshoot with her Mother wearing an almost sexy capped sleeved tee-shirt - I would have thought she would have been too cold for that?
In terms of publicity, this story made almost every paper in the U.K., quite successful by anyone's standards - although pinch of salt applies to most comments regarding Steven Johnson, we feel.
And now everyone is happy again and Charlotte is full of joy that Mother Maria is accompanying her on her Tour rather than Steven?
Or is it more the case that if she pulls out, she could be in trouble financially and her Mother and her Management have suggested her "New Image" would not be good for her U.S.A. fans and therefore her Mother should go along instead...
Well, what do you think sounds more realistic?
Comments are welcome on the Message Boards, Forums, and Guestbook, the links for which are at the bottom of this Page.
"THE DAILY DUSTBIN"
If we see it printed, we'll post it - that's our motto! Seriously though, there are many, many stories printed in the World's Media about Charlotte, we cannot possibly post them all, but we'll do our best to get most of them. Needless to say, whether from a Tabloid, Broadsheet, Magazine Article, or a disclosure from an "insider", there's a large element of sensationlism, inaccuracy, and generally dowright lies with some of these articles, so each time you visit this page, please have your salt on standby...!
Having said that, there is usually at least an element of truth in most of these stories, so to compliment this, we have included our own Editorial within each Section, to give a more "level-headed" view of things - we hope!!! We start, therefore, where it all started for The New Image Of Charlotte Church Beta Test Website - "Daily Dustbin".
Editor's Note:
The dregs of the dustbin...
This is the worst sort of tabloid "journalism" you can really get.
Desperate for new material on Charlotte, "The People" (U.K.) Newspaper have spoken to a "secret step-sister" - Elisha Church and published the following story. "The People" is probably only slightly better regarded in the U.K. than The "Daily Star", but only just....
This particular story suggests that not only was Charlotte feeling perfectly O.K, and that the "airport scene" had nothing to do with "bad boy" boyfriend Steven Johnson, but that the entire scenario is because of Charlotte's "Scheming Mother, Maria Church"....
Desperately worried Elisha Church fears the 16-year-old star "can't take any more" and is facing an emotional collapse.
Elisha, 19, insists Charlotte's tears at an airport last week when she refused to board a jet to tour America were triggered by her mother's domineering ways - NOT a row with her boyfriend.
She told The People: "Her mother has pushed Charlotte to the edge. I am convinced my little sister has had enough.
"I don't blame her for not flying out for yet more work. For the first time in her life she turned round and decided not to take it."
In an exclusive interview, Elisha, daughter of Charlotte's stepdad James, revealed the truth behind the teen diva's turmoil.
She told how the young soprano was: -
-ROBBED of her childhood as she was groomed to be a star.
-BANNED from watching TV and videos with her pals.
-FORCED to spend hours alone singing along to a karoke machine.
Elisha says Charlotte has now finally rebelled against her mother Maria's controlling ways and has turned to "bad boy" boyfriend Steven Johnson, 18, for support.
But Elisha is worried that Charlotte's relationship with him will end in tears. It doesn't help that Maria has never approved of the DJ - who Charlotte calls her "bit of rough".
She said: "Charlotte was brought up to be quiet and well-behaved and suddenly thinks she's free. I don't want her to go off the rails."
Although the Voice of an Angel star has a £16 million fortune and has performed for princes, presidents and the Pope, Elisha believes she is still a vulnerable child.
She longs to comfort the singer, who she has not seen for nearly three years but was once as close as a natural sister.
Elisha said: "Because of all the hassle with her mum, Charlotte needs a big sister to confide in and I wish I could help. I really care for her.
"Charlotte had a strange childhood and has been missing out on being a normal teenager. Now she's rebelling against all that pressure and is in danger of getting badly hurt." Elisha welcomes reports that Charlotte has ditched Maria, 37, as her manager - even though mum and daughter were pictured hugging on Friday as though they had made up.
"If my mother was as controlling as Maria I'd have been gone a long time ago," she said.
Elisha saw first-hand the tension between Charlotte and her ambitious mother when it began years ago at their Cardiff home.
She said: "They are both stubborn and fought a lot. Maria would shout at Charlotte, sending her to her bedroom to practise.
"Charlotte was only 13 when she started singing professionally and Maria really put the pressure on her. I used to think, 'Give the girl a break'.
"Charlotte wanted to do typical teenage things. She wanted to watch TV and videos with me and my brother or hang out with her friends. But there was a karaoke machine in her bedroom and she had to spend hours practising with it. I felt so sorry for her. We went ice-skating with my dad, but she was never allowed to come."
Elisha was six when her father left her mum Jayne to move in with Maria. The couple later married but James, 38, was careful to make sure Elisha and her younger brother Andrew, now 17, did not miss out.
"Dad would pick us up every week and take us to play with Charlotte," Elisha recalls. "He always arranged something special for us to do. Charlotte and I had the same sense of humour and enjoyed a laugh whatever we were doing. My dad wanted both me and Charlotte to make something of our lives."
But all that changed as Charlotte's career took off. Elisha claimed Maria made her feel she was beneath the gifted singer.
She said: "Our visits dwindled to whenever my dad could squeeze us in. The demands of Charlotte's career seemed to come first. That really hurt. Once she really hit the big time I was treated like riff-raff and they didn't invite me to the house."
Unhappy Elisha started playing truant from school and after leaving, she scraped a living as a £4-an-hour cleaner. The rift with her father grew wider and he doesn't even know of Elisha's son by a factory worker boyfriend.
The couple have now split up and Elisha struggles to bring up her boy on a rough Cardiff council estate on £100-a-week benefits. The stark contrast between her existence and Charlotte's glittering lifestyle was brought home last time the stepsisters met.
The singer was at Cardiff's new stadium practising for her Millennium Eve concert. Elisha was there too - cleaning the loos.
She recalled: "I was so proud of Charlotte and really pleased to see her. She was surrounded by friends and wearing a beautiful outfit. I was standing there in my cleaning uniform, feeling like the ugly duckling.
"But she bounded over to say Hi. Maria just glanced over and walked off. Charlotte asked how I was and I took the chance to find out how my dad was doing."
Now Elisha can only watch and worry about her kid sister as Charlotte plans to move into a £250,000 love nest with her boyfriend - whose pals are said to include drug-users and criminals.
Yesterday, a psychologist supported Elisha's view on Charlotte's strained relationship with her mother. Gladeana McMahon said it was betrayed in Friday's hugging photos. She said: "Charlotte is making no effort to disguise her feelings. The sadness in her eyes looks like she's bordering on depression. She's going through her first romance and is in emotional turmoil."
And her mum is cleary worried about what her daughter is doing with her career and wants her to get her act together."
As Charlotte's four-week US tour hung in the balance, Elisha offered her support. She added: "Since Charlotte became rich her mum has looked down her nose at everyone.
"But that doesn't stop me thinking I could be a help to Charlotte - and she would make a lovely auntie to Ben."
TEENAGE soprano Charlotte Church will today leave her boyfriend behind to go on an American tour - after the threat of a massive lawsuit if she pulled out.
The 16-year-old is facing legal action if she scraps her 15-date North American pre-Christmas tour after selling out thousands of tickets.
Her management signed a contract to perform with Sound of Music stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer in a show called "A Royal Christmas" - with tickets costing up to $125 each.
And she has been warned her career could be wrecked if she backs out, as the show's organisers have paid for a huge advertising and promotion campaign.
Charlotte is booked on the 11.30am flight from Gatwick to Cincinatti today - three days after refusing to go on the same flight.
After refusing to jet off, Charlotte returned home to Cardiff to see her "bad-boy" boyfriend Steven Johnson, 18. But she yesterday insisted it was illness from flu and an ear infection that stopped her flying across the Atlantic.
And she said her mum Maria was looking after her.
In recent weeks Charlotte has been spending most of her time with Steven, a part-time DJ, at his terraced house in Cardiff's docklands rather than with her parents at their £500,000 luxury home.
But yesterday she was with her parents. A taxi called at Steven's house to collect Charlotte - as it had also done the day before - only to turn away because she wasn't there.
Her American tour starts in Cincinatti, going through the States and Canada before ending in Florida four days before Christmas.
The show - also featuring the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Westminster Concert Choir, Westminster Bell Choir and the Bolshoi Ballet - is described as "one of the largest holiday extravaganzas ever produced".
CHARLOTTE CHURCH was all smiles yesterday as she patched things up with mum Maria and they left together for the delayed start of the teenage singer's US tour.
Charlotte was given a protective hug by her mum as they left Gatwick Airport, London, and Maria declared: "I am looking after her now."
It was all in sharp contrast to the events of last Wednesday, when the 16- year-old had mysteriously left the same airport shortly before her plane to the States was due to depart.
Reports suggested Charlotte had rowed with her DJ boyfriend Steven Johnson and wanted to sort things out before she left.
But her management team released a statement saying their young star had stayed at home because she was suffering from flu and an ear infection.
The trip was to have been the singer's first visit to the US without her mum, who has been widely reported as disapproving of 18- year-old Johnson.
To add to the family pressures, Maria, 37, has recently been sacked as her daughter's manager, although Charlotte stressed that her mum remained "very involved" in her career.
But all those troubles seem to be behind them as the beaming mother and daughter looked the very best of pals yesterday.
As they prepared to fly out,Maria said: "We have patched up our differences and everything is fine with us."
Charlotte looked happy as she waved to her fans and said she was looking forward to the three- week tour, along with Sound of Music star Christopher Plummer. She said: "It is gonna be great."
And answering questions about problems at home she replied: "Everything's gravy, thanks."
The 16-year-old singer had been due to leave on Wednesday but left Gatwick Airport shortly before her plane departed.
She returned to Gatwick this morning with her mother Maria and members of her management say she's looking forward to her three-week tour.
Newspaper reports earlier this week said Church had refused to board the plane on Wednesday until a row with her boyfriend Steven Johnson had been resolved.
However a statement from her management, azoffmusic, said the star hadn't gone because she was suffering from flu and an ear infection.
On her return to the airport Church said she was looking forward to beginning the tour: "Yes, I am looking forward to it, it is gonna be great."
She said she was feeling better and asked if the "problems" at home had been resolved, she replied with the popular teenage slang phrase: "Everything's gravy, thanks very much."
The star's mother Maria said: "I am looking after her now, we have patched our differences up and everything is fine with us."
The singer was forced to cancel an engagement to turn on the Christmas lights in Atlanta following the decision to postpone her trip earlier this week.
The tour is in conjunction with the release of her album, Prelude - The Best of Charlotte Church, begins in Cincinnati and ends in Florida on December 21.
Story filed: 11:36 Saturday 30th November 2002
Though singer Charlotte Church has patched things up with her former manager mum, it seems it was her 18-year-old on-off beau that she turned to for comfort after she suffered an emotional breakdown at Gatwick airport.
While her minders said she was back in the arms of her mum after the Wednesday outburst, Charlotte was spotted leaving Steven's Cardiff home early the following morning, with the hood of a furry parka pulled over her head.
When a tearful Charlotte abandoned her flight to the US, where she is set to begin a series of concerts, her management said she was ill with the flu. Other reports, however, say the teenage vocalist broke down over the thought of being separated from her boyfriend Steven Johnson during the tour.
Sources say she was concerned about losing the part-time DJ, whom she has called her "bit of rough", while away in the US. "I am in love," she said in a recent interview. "I think I am anyway."
The relationship, along with the star's newly-adopted smoking habit, is also said to be at the root of the troubles with her mother Maria, who the 16-year-old recently sacked as her manager. Charlotte, now reconciled with her mum after the airport incident, has openly admitted: "My mother doesn't approve of my boyfriend".
Teenage chanteuse Charlotte Church refused to board the flight taking her to America to launch her US tour on Wednesday, and now says she'll be travelling with her mum, who she sacked as her manager just weeks ago.
Witnesses say the 16-year-old vocalist was "inconsolable", sobbing into her mobile phone in a Gatwick airport VIP lounge. Not long after Charlotte was heard saying, "I can't do it," Delta airlines staff removed her bags from the plane and the young singer left the airport for home.
Though some reports say a blazing row with her on-off boyfriend sparked the breakdown, a spokesperson for the star said: "Charlotte was feeling ill and felt she was not able to make the long flight without her mother." Her mum will be flying out with her in a few days, and will "look after her" until her tour starts.
The talented teen has apparently healed a reported rift with her mother Maria, whom she sacked as her manager two weeks ago. "She still remains very involved in my career," the Prelude singer said at the time, "but obviously on a different level due to my growing independence and own experience".
Charlotte will be flying to Cincinnati to start a four-week tour with Julie Andrews, set to kick off on December 3.
Teenage singer Charlotte Church has finally left for a US tour after breaking down in tears and refusing to leave earlier in the week.
The 16-year-old Cardiff singer had been due to leave for her first performance in Cincinnati but did not board the flight.
Her management said she was suffering from flu and an ear infection.
A statement earlier this week from her Los Angeles management, azoffmusic, said: "Charlotte over the past few days, has been suffering with an awful flu/ear infection."
It said she had been feeling very ill "and felt that she wasn't well enough to make that long transatlantic flight to America, without her mother beside her".
But there was also speculation that a row with her parents and with her boyfriend Steven Johnson were to blame.
A spokeswoman for the singer said she was now feeling "fine"
The teenager has spent much of this week at her parents' home recuperating.
Her mother Maria is said not to approve of Church's boyfriend.
Church's north American tour will be with Sound of Music stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.
Last Updated: 22:44 UK, Saturday November 30, 2002
The singer boarded her plane
Teenage star Charlotte Church boarded a plane for America on Saturday insisting that "everything was gravy" with her private life.
The singer was making a second attempt to leave the UK after an trip to Gatwick on Wednesday for a flight that she was booked on, but did not board.
Charlotte, 16, was forced to cancel an engagement to turn on the Christmas lights in Atlanta following the decision to postpone her trip earlier in the week.
She is flying out ahead of her first performance in Cincinnati on Tuesday.
The singer will be touring America
for three weeks.
This time, accompanied by her mother Maria and members of her management, she said that she was looking forward to beginning the tour, which is due to last three weeks.
Wearing a smart black winter coat with a fur collar, Charlotte told waiting reporters: "I am looking forward to it, it is gonna be great."
Her postponement of an earlier flight followed reports in some newspapers that she had had a bust-up with her DJ boyfriend Steven Johnson, and had refused to board a plane until the differences had been sorted out.
However a statement from her management, azoffmusic, said the star had not departed because she was suffering from flu and an ear infection.
On Saturday, Charlotte said she was feeling better and when asked if the "problems" at home had been resolved, she replied with the popular teenage slang phrase: "Everything's gravy, thanks very much."
The trip to the US was to have been Charlotte's first without her mother, who is said not to approve of her daughter's boyfriend.
This was accompanied by reports two weeks ago that Mrs Church had been sacked as the soprano's manager, although the 16-year-old maintained at the time that she remained "very involved" in her career.
Mrs Church said today: "I am looking after her now, we have patched our differences up and everything is fine with us."
Charlotte's north American tour will be with Sound of Music stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, and will visit cities in the USA and Canada.
The tour is in conjunction with the release of her album, Prelude - The Best of Charlotte Church, and is due to take in 15 different performances, ending in Florida.
Teenage singer Charlotte Church is to start her US tour tomorrow after a week of public rumours about her private life.
The 16-year-old soprano was due to fly out to America on Thursday, but refused to board her plane, saying the tour would be "four weeks of hell".
Charlotte's management explained that the delay to her travel plans was caused by flu, although this did not stop her posing for photographs with her mother the following day.
The stunt comes shortly after it was reported that Ms Church had fired her mother as manager and asked for an allowance from record label Sony.
It has been a busy time for the singer's public life, with continuing rumours about her relationship with DJ Steven Jonson coinciding with the release of her latest album, Prelude.
CHARLOTTE CHURCH'S management have condemned as "complete codswallop" reports that the teenage singer swore and refused to meet fans backstage after the opening night of her American tour.
The 16-year-old star allegedly reacted angrily to a request to "meet and greet" relatives of fellow performers, including a handicapped child and the conductor's wheelchair-bound mother.
Reports claim Charlotte swore, and told organisers, "I didn't agree to meet and greet," before adding a sarcastic American-style "Hello?" and storming off with her entourage in tow.
The alleged outburst followed a far-from perfect Cincinnati debut for A Royal Christmas, also starring veteran performers Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews.
A half-empty arena, faulty micro-phones, forgotten lyrics and a tearful Charlotte checking her mobile phone for messages between songs backstage, were all reported as the latest in a long line of problems for the Cardiff soprano.
But a spokesperson for Char-lotte's management company Azoffmusic, speaking from her tour bus in America, denied that Charlotte had behaved badly. She told The Western Mail, "Charlotte wasn't aware that there was a meet and greet organised after the concert."
We had already left the arena when we found out what had been arranged.
"The stories about Charlotte refusing to meet people backstage and swearing are completely inaccurate. The whole story is fabricated."
She said the trip to America was going well, adding, "Charlotte is really enjoying her time out here.
"The arena wasn't full for the first night in Cincinnati, but last night we played to a packed 8,000-seater arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and it went really well. She's having a great time out here with her mum and her management team.
"She's just a bit fed-up with all these false newspaper reports, which are just fabricated stories."
Responding to suggestions that Charlotte is suffering from fatigue, the spokesperson added, "We have 15 shows to do, which is a lot, but Charlotte will have a few days off here and there in between.
"She will come home in time for Christmas, which she will be spending with her family in Wales.
"I expect she will need a rest by then."
Charlotte's manager, Mark Melton, added, "I've spoken to Charlotte's mother and she is in great spirits.
"The newspaper stories about the Cincinnati concert are complete codswallop, and are upsetting for her father, who is back in the UK."
American news organisations said they were unaware of Char-lotte's reported outburst after the concert.
Mona Fuqua of The Cincinnati Enquirer said, "Our reporter reviewed the concert, but we are not aware of Charlotte refusing to meet fans or acting badly. We have not received any such reports."
Cincinnati Post reporter Wayne Carey echoed this, saying, "I haven't heard of any complaints made against Miss Church after the concert."
Charlotte's trip to America was delayed last week after she refused to get on a flight to Cincinnati from Gatwick.
She returned home instead to Cardiff, to see her "bad-boy" boyfriend Steven Johnson, 18.
But she later insisted it was illness from flu and an ear infection that stopped her flying across the Atlantic, and also denied any rift with her mother, Maria.
She eventually flew to the US on Saturday after the threat of a lawsuit if she pulled out of the tour.
In recent weeks, Charlotte has reportedly been spending most of her time with Steven, a part-time DJ, at his terraced house in Cardiff's docklands, rather than with her parents at their £500,000 luxury home.
LOVESTRUCK Charlotte Church shops for wigs yesterday — hours before going on stage.
Perhaps the singer, 16, was seeking a new image to impress DJ boyfriend Steven Johnson, 18, who warned her he might not be able to stay faithful while she was touring the US.
Getting wiggy with it ... Charlotte tries it on
The boss of the shop in Cincinnati said: “She was having great fun trying wigs on.”
FOUL-mouthed Charlotte Church unleashed a four-letter outburst as she refused to meet disabled fans after the shambolic opening night of her US tour.
The 16-year-old singer — known as The Voice of an Angel — let fly when she was asked to do a “meet and greet” backstage.
She raged: “F*** this. I didn’t agree to no meet and greet.” She added a sarcastic US-style “Hello?” — then stormed off with an entourage of anxious aides in tow.
Charlotte’s tantrum topped off a turbulent night at Cincinnati’s 14,000-seat US Bank Arena, in which she:
BROKE down in tears and sat with her head in her hands before going on stage for the finale.
ENRAGED show co-stars Christopher Plummer, 72, and Julie Andrews, 67, by turning up late for the final rehearsal — then demanding chocolate cake and prosciutto ham to cheer her up.
LOOKED distracted and repeatedly checked her mobile phone during the rushed pre-show run-through.
The show, called A Royal Christmas, was plagued by howlers and played to an arena only a third full.
Poor show ... thousands of empty seats as Charlotte sings
Tickets for the 15-date tour are selling slowly elsewhere and promoters fear a flop.
Charlotte’s explosion came days after she threw a wobbler at Gatwick Airport.
She refused to fly out to America after her 18-year-old boyfriend Steve Johnson, a part-time DJ, warned he might not be faithful while she was away.
The lovesick teenager finally made the trip three days later with mum Maria, 37, after tour chiefs threatened to sue.
Charlotte and her co-stars then had just two days to rehearse — and had to cut parts of the show hours before curtain up in Cincinnati.
Three microphones packed up during the concert, Plummer forgot the words to one song and fluffed an announcement — and Charlotte failed to set the stage alight.
A support act of Cossack dancers got a bigger cheer.
Warning ... Steve Johnson
Charlotte lost it soon after the show, which also featured the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.
Arena staff asked her if she would meet some fans. But Charlotte, who had changed into a tracksuit, let rip with her four-letter tirade and marched off to the tour bus.
Minutes later, the conductor’s wheelchair-bound mother and a group of children, one with Down’s Syndrome, appeared backstage.
Julie Andrews stepped into the breach by chatting and signing autographs.
The stars have a night off tonight before their next concert in Pittsburgh tomorrow.
Click
here to see "Griffin's View".
SINGING sensation Charlotte Church is very much like 16-year-olds across the world.
Caught between childhood and not yet a woman she is stuck in the troubling stage of being a teenager. First loves, friendships and first experiences of the world are immense in the eyes of youth.
But while many can hide away in their room, Charlotte lives her life out in front of the media glare.
Last night she talked about her identity crisis, which all of her age group have experienced.
She said, "I'm really confused about who I am and everything and all that. I'm just starting in relationships and stuff like that, and when everything is being scrutinised, it's just - it's confusing enough being 16."
She said her general problems of growing up have intensified with the recent media scrutiny of her life. ..TEXT: In the past few months, articles have filled the tabloids discussing her new boyfriend, and her supposed rift with her mother. Earlier this week they accused her of diva-style tantrums and a four-letter tirade. She said, "I try to let it all go over my head but it's hard because my family get really upset, and the people around me get really upset and get really angry, because none of it is true - none of it is true.
"I don't throw big tantrums, I'm not a diva. I've been to all the meet and greets that I'm supposed to, so I just don't know where they get it from.
"It is really draining and I just think that it is really sad the way they distort a 16-year-old's life."
The Cardiff singer said that although she loved singing, the papers' interest and comments are a "really, really difficult" part of being famous. "I know when you kinda make yourself available to be a celebrity, you have to accept parts of your personal life will be looked at. But that's OK for a 30-year-old who knows how to deal with things like that.
"I don't really know what I'm supposed to be in the British Press at the moment. I'm getting through it, but it's hard because it's so frustrating, because I feel like a lot of the British public do think these things are me and I'm just not like that at all." She likened her current situationat the hands of the tabloids to that of Prince William and Harry.
"I can completely sympathise with them, because like I said, being young is hard and confusing, and when you're put in a goldfish bowl and everything you do is just multiplied and made into this big extravagant story."
Despite tales of rifts with her mother over her boyfriend Steven Johnson she has been by Charlotte's side.
"It's just been really, really nice to have my mum here."
She ordered the ban amid fears our stories about backstage tantrums would damage her career.
The Sun was refused entry at her second concert minutes before it began after we told how the 16-year-old had snubbed disabled fans with a four-letter tirade.
The number of security guards was quadrupled for the gig — co-starring Sound Of Music legends Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.
But the measures did not stop Welsh diva Charlotte upsetting those around her in Grand Rapids, Michigan — or The Sun from finding out.
She infuriated musicians in the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra by turning her back on them in rehearsals.
They also said she kept fluffing her lines in her version of Corpus Christi.
One said: “It went down like a lead balloon on the opening night because it was so awful.”
Many of the 11,000 seats were unsold.
She supposedly sobbed in her dressing room, cursed her handlers, nearly refused to go on stage and absolutely refused to meet and greet people after the show.
That's the story Brits read Wednesday in London's Evening Standard newspaper about Welsh singing sensation Charlotte Church's appearance Tuesday in Cincinnati.
But in Grand Rapids on Wednesday for the second stop in the North American tour of "A Royal Christmas," a handful of West Michiganders saw a different side of the 16-year-old diva.
"She was very kind and very charming. A really sweet girl," said Polly Mix of Wyoming moments after meeting Church backstage before Wednesday's concert in Van Andel Arena.
"She signed autographs and took photos with everyone," said Mix, who won a radio contest from WLHT-FM (95.7) and got to meet Church.
Church's Los Angeles-based publicist failed to return a call Wednesday seeking comment about her reported behavior backstage Tuesday in Cincinnati's USB Arena.
However, Ed Kasses, president of Princeton Entertainment and producer of the tour, denied nearly all of the account in the English paper.
"It's nonsense. It's utter garbage," he said. "It's just so ridiculous it just boggles the imagination."
Though the English press insisted the young soprano angrily refused to meet a group of relatives of fellow cast members, Kasses said the singer with more than 10 million albums sold worldwide did meet backstage with contest winners from a public broadcasting station in Cincinnati.
"She gladly did it, and she was very gracious about it," Kasses said.
The only point Kasses agreed with was that Church arrived late for the start of rehearsals for the 15-city tour, delaying her trip to Cincinnati until Saturday, some three days later than expected, because she was recovering from a cold.
While the British press reported that Church had demanded chocolate cake and prosciutto ham in her dressing room in Cincinnati, a spokesperson for SMG, the private firm that manages Van Andel Arena, said Church's contract rider called for such items as peanut butter and jelly and the energy drink Red Bull to be on hand.
Co-stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer had requested such items as bottled water, hot tea and a cheese tray.
"Nothing out of the ordinary. All real simple things," said arena marketing director Lynne Ike.
Journalists from two English newspapers attempting to cover Wednesday's concert in the arena found their credentials withdrawn shortly before the program began.
"I think they're worried about publicity in the U.K.," said Brian Flynn, a New York-based reporter for London's tabloid The Sun. "But if you pull people's accreditation, it looks like you've got something to hide."
With no concert to cover, Flynn said his story for today's paper would be about the only topic available to him. "They've banned the British media," he said. "That's the story."
'Voice of an Angel' superstar Charlotte Church has compared the pressures in her life as a famous teenager to those of Princes William and Harry.
In an interview, the 16-year-old singer from Cardiff denied she was a tantrum-throwing diva but said living life "in a goldfish bowl" made normal teen growing pains even more difficult
Church also hit out at media criticism of her current 15-date tour of the US, where she is appearing alongside The Sound of Music stars Dame Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.
She said she was not having an emotional breakdown, but accused newspapers of making her life hell.
Recent press reports claimed the singer had refused to meet fans after a concert in Cincinnati, Ohio, and that ticket sales for the concerts were poor.
She said: "I try to let it all go over my head but it's hard because my family get really upset.
"The people around me get really upset and get really angry, because none of it is true - none of it is true.
"I don't throw big tantrums, I'm not a diva. I've been to all the meet and greets that I'm supposed to go to, so I just don't know where they get it from.
"It is really draining and I just think that it is really sad the way they distort a 16-year-old's life."
Speaking during the interview with ITN News, Church said she could identify with Princes William and Harry, and compared her life with theirs.
"I can completely sympathise with them, because like I said, being young is hard and confusing, and when you're put in a goldfish bowl everything you do is just multiplied and made into this big extravagent story," she said.
Dealing with newspaper stories was a "really, really difficult" part of being famous, she added.
""I know when you kinda make yourself available to be a celebrity, you have to accept the parts of your personal life will be looked at.
Confused
"But that's OK for a 30-year-old who knows how to deal with things like that.
"I'm just starting in relationships and stuff like that, and when everything is being scrutinised, it's just - it's confusing enough being 16," she explained.
"I'm really confused about who I am and everything and all that.
"I don't really know what I'm supposed to be in the British press at the moment.
I'm getting through it, but it's hard because it's so frustrating because I feel like a lot of the British public do think these things are me and I'm just not like that at all."
Church praised her mother Maria's support, saying she had been "brilliant" on the tour with her.
Originally, Maria was going to stay at home, leaving her daughter go on tour without her for the first time.
But following an alleged case of 'flu which prevented the singer boarding her plane at the very last minute, her mother joined her on a flight to the US three days later.
"It's just been really, really nice to have my mum here, and I mean all my family - my family phone us every day," she said.
Her mother is reported not to approve of Church's 10-month relationship with boyfriend Steven Johnson, but the singer said neither Maria nor Johnson deserved the bad press they were getting.
Church claimed the tour was going well and said ticket sales were improving as Christmas neared.
There you are then, from the original whole story "re-printed" from The Sun in full, to other stories since. You can check the full original story out for yourself at http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2002410065,00.html, whether doubts can be raised about certain aspects of the story, one thing is for sure, Charlotte's New Image (and boyfriend) is not going to please some of her older fans, particularly those who still like to think of Charlotte as the Angelic Schoolgirl, but she herself seems determined to smash this into pieces.
One last thought from the team here at The New Image Of Charlotte Church Fans' Beta Test Website, some of the pictures seem to be so good, it was almost as if Charlotte and Steven knew the camera's were there...or is that our imagination???!!!
Feel free to discuss this and any other Charlotte
related subject at either the Message
Board or, of course, post
your Comments on The Forum. 
Also check out the New Image Of Charlotte Church Fans' Beta Test Website Editorial of some of these Stories as well, by clicking here.
CHARLOTTE CHURCH can cope with the media furore surrounding secret dates with her "bit of rough" boyfriend - because he's a working class boy with the same background as the £15m singing superstar. Jonathan Shalit, who discovered and managed the soprano prodigy until he was controversially sacked by the Church family in January 2000, said Charlotte was only acting like a normal teenager by dating 18-year-old DJ Steven Johnson.
Charlotte's mother and manager, Maria, banned Charlotte from seeing Johnson after the pair were caught kissing soon after her 16th birthday party in February, believing the romance would affect Charlotte's GCSE revision and singing career. Last week it was reported the pair had split up, but Charlotte has since been spotted leaving Steven's father's house in the Butetown area of Cardiff, and has sneaked out of her £500,000 mansion to stay at Steven's house, having told her mother she was staying with best friend Naomi Holland.
Mr Shalit said, "Charlotte Church comes from a poor, working-class family, but as a result of her talent and fame she's been very well-educated, as her exam results have shown. She has a great life, a big house - the benefits seem to outweigh the disadvantages. "Of course there will be problems - like you and your boyfriend being on the front page of The Sun - but boyfriends will always cause tensions between children and parents and that's only natural. He's 18, which is a perfectly acceptable age for a boy to be going out with a 16-year-old girl. "He's from a working class Cardiff family and so is Charlotte. They have very similar backgrounds and so it is only natural that Charlotte feels comfortable with him, although she is a very intelligent and balanced girl who is comfortable with people from all backgrounds."
A Mercedes driven by a blonde woman in her forties whisked Steven into hiding from his father's home yesterday. Charlotte's mother Maria, 37, refused to answer the door of the Churches' luxury home in Coryton before driving to her mother's house three miles away. PR guru Max Clifford said, "If Charlotte's mum is going to try and stop her doing what comes naturally, it may spoil her relationship with Charlotte, especially as she manages her too."
Sneaking out to meet your boyfriend behind your mum's back. Pretending to be at your best friend's house when you're really with your latest crush. Constantly waiting by the phone for a call or text message from him. These are all typical traits of a teenage girl with her first big infatuation, and girls across the country will be able to relate to the excitement - made all the more thrilling by daring secret trysts. But there's always the possibility that your mum might find out, and arguments, punishment and further teen angst will follow. It's all part of the rich tapestry of adolescent life, and familiar to most 16-year-old girls.
The only problem is that Charlotte Church is Britain's most famous 16-year-old girl, so when she is caught with a boy her parents disapprove of, it's through the tabloids that her mother Maria and stepfather James find out, as pictures of Charlotte and 18-year-old Steven Johnson cuddling in a Cardiff street are printed on pages one, four and five of The Sun. Since she was dubbed an angelic choir-girl at the age of 12, Charlotte has had a difficult job living up to that image.
The pressures of an international singing career which has seen her sell millions of albums, sing for the Pope and two American presidents, and all while still at school, would have been too much for many girls her age. The fact she achieved straight As in her recent GCSE exams is testimony to her intelligence, but also to her hard work and commitment - which saw her take one exam at 4am because she was in America performing while her classmates sat it at Howell's school in Cardiff. Before Charlotte's very public boyfriend troubles, she hit the headlines for changing her image from school uniform to leather catsuit, from ballgown to batwing top, and from pigtails to teased curls.
But has Charlotte turned into Wales's version of American teen queen Britney Spears, whose daring (and often dire) outfits appear on the cover of newspapers and magazines across the world, and who recently announced she was taking a break from show-business because she was burnt out? Director Karl Francis, who recently worked with Charlotte as part of his BBC 2 Masterclass series, said growing up in the glare of the spotlight hasn't affected the singing superstar. "Charlotte is what I call `Cardiff tough' - she's tough but sensitive," he said. "She is a very sensible girl who is able to handle showbusiness - she's a bit like Catherine Zeta Jones. "She knows what showbusiness is about and she's entered into it on her own terms. "She's not a naive young girl who is going to be manipulated - she's been quite shrewd from the beginning, and has gone into this with her eyes open."
He said that Charlotte was a positive example to other youngsters. "I think she's a good role model for young girls today - what impressed me the most when we filmed the programme was the number of young people who looked up to her in the audience. "She is very kind and generous - she donated her fee for Charlotte Church: Diva to the Noah's Ark Appeal, and she's not become arrogant with all her success. "She's not doing drugs, she's not sleeping around - she's just being an ordinary teenager and dealing with the pressures on her in a great way. "She's having a good time, a great life, a very good education, and she's recording, producing and selling good music across the world." Mr Francis said Charlotte was as normal as anyone could be in her position. "She's a bouncy, happy teenager, she may be more outgoing than some, but she's retaining her values, and just wants to be happy - what's wrong with that?" he said. "She is a typical teenager - I've got three daughters, and I would be proud to have Charlotte as my daughter too. I wish I had her emotional strength." Charlotte's former manager Jonathan Shalit said, "Wales should be proud of Charlotte Church. " Mr Francis agreed, saying, "People are miserable and jealous about others' success - they can't believe she can be so talented, and be clever, and good looking at the same time. "I don't know who would be considered `good' enough for Charlotte to go out with. Maybe she'll end up marrying Prince William - will people be happy then?"
This is also quite an interesting article, courtesy of www.news.scotsman.com:
Chrissy Iley on Charlotte Church and Steven Johnson
Chrissy Iley
I’ve always felt a little disturbed by Charlotte Church. There she was, all at odds with herself, the powerful voice of a big woman coming out of her mouth, but dressed in this frilly, Annie-style dress. She’s been called the Streisand of our generation and has complained that she can’t get into clubs the way all her friends can because everybody knows she’s under-age. Rather cruelly, someone chose The Voice of an Angel as the title of her album, thus rather upping the pressure that she should act like one too. But growing up in public is never easy. Hormones aren’t easy to deal with when you can hide away in your bedroom, but it’s horrifically awkward when the whole world comments that you’re wearing high wedges and spaghetti-strap tops and starts talking about your bosoms on Jonathan Ross.
I thought she handled the pressure very well. She’s always a game girl on those talk shows, even if that was possibly not quite what her mother, Maria, had in mind. There’s always been a control issue between them. She sacked Jonathan Shalit, Charlotte’s manager and the man who discovered her. He’d got her a multi-million-dollar deal with Sony, but Maria didn’t like that he had too many lunches at the Ivy and talked with his mouth full, and she didn’t care for the way he rubbed his thighs.
The good-girl-bad-girl thing was always there, waiting to rise up and do battle within Charlotte. Until recently the spats were all about her wanting to be a normal teenager and not being allowed to, while at the same time wanting to spend some of her hard-earned dosh on a designer outfit and being told to get it for a fiver at Top Shop instead. Her relationship with her mother veered between being chummy one minute and explosive the next, and this never more so than when she fell for her first proper boyfriend, Steven Johnson.
He’s tall, 18, does computer studies and DJs part time. Maria hates him. Charlotte used to call him, with some affection, her "bit of rough". They’ve been together for about seven months. Her mother has banned the relationship, which meant he never came round to her plush house in a leafy suburb. She hung out instead in his ugly-looking terrace house in the notorious Tiger Bay area - not what Maria had in mind for Charlotte at all. No doubt, she thought that he, like anyone else, was only after her daughter’s money - money which, incidentally, is in trust until she’s 21. She gets £40 a week in pocket money, but her lifestyle inevitably includes lots of record company freebies and stays in nice hotels when they fly her over to Los Angeles. She’s in California right now. Her mother sees it as a good base for her to work on her international career and, conveniently, keep her away from Steven.
Up until recently, I was all for Steven. Charlotte had said: "Guys either want to go out with you for who you are, or they’re after something." A fair point, Charlotte, and isn’t it torture trying to find out which? Before the fruits of her voice paved her life in pashmina-covered benefits, she would have been described as working class; her background was very similar to Steven’s, so it was no surprise that she felt comfortable with him. Having said that, though, one of her talents is that she seems comfortable with everyone. She’s joked with world leaders (unable to stifle a snigger when George Bush famously remarked, "So, Charlotte, you come from Wales. What state is that in?"), and she’s sung for Bill Clinton and the Pope. She wrote her autobiography when she was 14. As someone who was given all the demands and responsibilities of a very adult life, therefore, she has an interesting relationship with control. It’s made her quicker. But it’s also a chore. To relax, she wants to surrender, submit. She’s the kind of strong woman who’s going to fall for a man she is in awe of. In fact, she described it in exactly that way: "I’m in awe of him. I can’t get enough of him."
He’s known locally as DJ Diddy and he likes to practise his rap act in a warehouse in a kind of Welsh version of So Solid Crew. Charlotte’s friends say she used to bombard him with text messages which would go unanswered. Clearly she feels comfortable doing the chasing and would be suspicious of anyone chasing her. She longs to be taken. It’s obvious from the way she looks that she wants the little girl taken right out of her. She’s got breasts - why shouldn’t she flaunt them? She’s 16, not six. Why shouldn’t she have highlights in her hair? It’s hardly an act of degradation. "I have a real thirst for knowledge. I want to find a partner who changes my world view," she once said to an interviewer who commented that it seemed as though a ripe vamp like Jerry Hall had somehow got inside the body of this young girl.
While all of this is going on, of course, the super-driven controlling mother is not comfortable seeing her daughter move to the next place. It’s hard for any mother to accept a new era, but when the old one is so lucrative it must be more difficult. Charlotte likes the power thing, of course, singing to world leaders, but at the same time she feels right with Johnson because she likes to be normal. "As soon as I step through Steven’s door, I am treated like any other normal teenager, which is what I so desperately want to be instead of a superstar."
How crushed and disappointed she must be to learn that the minute she leaves the country, her boyfriend sets up a press conference in a Cardiff hotel in an attempt to sell the story of their relationship. How hideous that he turned out to be everything her mother feared he would be. Perhaps if you fear something, fate somehow makes it happen. Perhaps Steven felt tainted by Maria’s loathing and decided he may as well be feasting off the sheep than be hanging for the lamb.
Fortunately, though, none of the papers wanted his story, even when he said: "I’m willing to talk about my relationship with Charlotte and that includes sex and other things. People who buy Charlotte’s records will be shocked."
He and four friends knocked back 40 bottles of champagne and countless shots of Jack Daniels during the hours of negotiations with newspapers and magazines. He claimed one magazine offered him £100,000 for his story and photographs. But, in a baffling bout of shyness, he refused to be pictured. He tried dropping his price to £50,000 but there were no takers.
It’s an incredibly ugly business. Even if Charlotte ever recovers from his betrayal, she won’t be able to take the fact that her mother was right all along. She might want to surrender Steven, but never to her mum. But what’s even worse is that she may be too stubborn to dump him for this. For all the wrong reasons, there could be reconciliation and the prototype Charlotte Church relationship will be set forever. She’ll only know love as combat. Any feelings of security will be accompanied by the tension of unbalanced needs. She’ll be addicted to bad boys forever, which might make her sing like a diva but will probably make her suffer like one as well.
His friends are also said to be heavily involved in the drug scene in Cardiff. Drag artiste ... songbird Charlotte brandishes a giant ciggie as she leaves her boyfriend’s house Charlotte was spotted calmly stepping out of Johnson’s house with the large hand-made smoke. Wearing a figure-hugging red top and scruffy blue jogging pants, she took two heavy drags in quick succession. Jobless Johnson left the house on a pushbike 20 minutes earlier. Last month he tried to betray Charlotte by hawking his story for £100,000 while she was in Los Angeles with Sony record chief Sir Howard Stringer. But friends say the Welsh beauty has forgiven the rat — and now adores him even more. One close pal told The Sun: “Charlotte loves Steven — it’s as simple as that. “Despite what everyone says about him, he can do no wrong as far as she’s concerned.”
Insiders say Charlotte has spent most of her time at Johnson’s £50,000 home since returning from LA two weeks ago. And they claim she has hardly seen or spoken to Maria, who lives across the city in a lavish £500,000 detached house. Neighbours saw Charlotte carry several bin bags full of clothes into Johnson’s house — which he shares with his dad — the day before she flew to LA. The pal added: “Charlotte divides her time between her aunt’s house and Steven’s. “She is hardly ever at home and her mum is going mad with worry. There is a lot of strain there at the moment. “But Charlotte doesn’t seem to care just as long as she’s with Steven.” The friend said that even though lovestruck Charlotte is almost always at his house, Johnson still goes out most evenings WITHOUT her — and often does not come home till morning.
He added: “Steven’s out virtually every night from six o’clock and he’ll stay out all night. “He leaves Charlotte behind, so she’ll invite some of her girl friends around for company. “They smoke and drink and listen to music. One reason is that Steven and Charlotte don’t like being seen out together. “But Steven has also said he doesn’t want Charlotte to cramp his style, so basically she’s got to put up with him doing whatever he wants.” Johnson — who speaks with a bizarre mock rasta accent — was first spotted kissing Charlotte at her 16th birthday party last February. They started dating two months later. Maria tried to ban the romance, fearing it would harm Charlotte’s career and clean-cut image. But besotted Charlotte told chums: “Steven is gorgeous and I can’t get enough of him.”